Football

LUBBOCK, Texas - The Texas Tech defense joined forces with the annual West Texas winds to limit the Red Raider offense to two scores and forced seven fumbles in the team's third controlled scrimmage of its spring practice today at Jones Stadium.

Rising senior quarterback Zebbie Lethridge (Lubbock, Texas) completed a six-yard touchdown pass to sophomore tight end Tim Winn (Longview, Texas) to cap an 11-play drive in which the first-team played the final seven plays. Rising junior Jaret Greaser (Amarillo, Texas) kicked the extra point. The only other scores of the scrimmage were a 35-yard field goal by redshirt freshman Cam Praytor (Austin, Texas) and a 37-yarder by freshman redshirt Chris Birkholz (Waco, Texas).

Lethridge led all rushers with five carries for 63 yards, while walk-on Charles Kambo rushed 10 times for 57 yards. Rising senior Malcolm McKenzie (San Antonio, Texas) led all receivers in the scrimmage with two catches for 39 yards.

"I would say the defense is definitely ahead of the offense at this stage of the game," said Spike Dykes, who is entering his 11th season as head football coach at Texas Tech. "Spring practice is about working on fundamentals, individual instruction and getting some of the kinks worked out before we break for the summer. We are more concerned with being ready on August 30 than we are in being in top form in March."

Texas Tech will conduct two more practices next week before completing its spring drills with a final scrimmage on Thursday, April 3 at 4 p.m. in Jones Stadium. Prior to the scrimmage, at 3:30 p.m., the annual passing of the reigns from Jo Lynn Self to the 1997 Masked Rider will take place.